Meet this professional puzzler

By Emma Dunn via SWNS

Meet the professional puzzler who competes in jigsaw championships and can complete a 500-piece one in just 50 minutes – and even place pieces with her feet.

Karen Kavett, 32, has always loved puzzles and made her hobby her job after sharing videos of her completing them in June 2018.

She likes to try her hand at jigsaws with a twist - such as gradient and patterned puzzles - and has even completed one with her feet.

Karen took part in the National Jigsaw Puzzle Championships in San Diego, California, in October 2022.

She finished in second place in the individual competition with a time of 50 minutes to complete a 500-piece puzzle.

Karen hopes to compete in the world championships this year and continues to grow her puzzle collection - consisting of around 400 jigsaws.

Karen, a puzzler and content creator from Los Angeles, said: “I think people like to see me suffer and like to see me try tricky puzzles.

“I like a puzzle with a twist.

“It was so much fun competing at the national championships.

“I was less than a minute away from winning.

“I placed second place out of 99 puzzlers.

“It was so exciting and so validating after the many hours I have spent doing puzzles.”

Karen has been creating videos on YouTube since she was 17 but decided to focus her channel on puzzling when they became her most popular videos and due to the puzzling boom over lockdown.

She has completed a 24,000-piece puzzle in just 157 hours and a 9,000-piece Minion jigsaw in 67 hours and 20 minutes.

“Puzzling is great,” Karen said.

“It’s very accessible.

“I have a second bedroom which I use as my puzzle studio.”

Karen loves to film herself puzzling and creates satisfying videos for her 202k subscribers of the time lapses of her putting them together.

She became part of a global community of speed puzzlers and decided to compete in the National Jigsaw Puzzle Competition in October 2022.

“I’ve done puzzling my entire life,” she said.

“I used to do them all the time with my family.

“I have done a 9,000-piece puzzle with all the pieces mixed together.

“A tiny puzzle that I had to do with tweezers.”

Karen has now designed her own puzzle and was able to complete it herself for the first time recently.

“It was so surreal solving my puzzle for the first time,” she said.

“It’s a puzzle of a puzzle.

“I have about 400 puzzles in my collection at the moment.”